Claire Dunne

but that was the reason they wanted us to help. The front flower bed was full of builder's rubble and litter and it looked unappealing. Previous efforts to plant there were thwarted due to the stones and lack of good soil. We split into two teams and the first group got stuck in to break up the ground and remove unwanted items. Rob tackled the larger area breaking up the soil with a pick axe and large fork. Claire racked through a bed pulling out stones and random bits of litter. Rachel got stuck in and crawled through the foliage to sort out the boundary line along the fence.

Meanwhile, the second group set to work at the back of the scout hut to clear an area of land. The scouts and cubs had made a good effort removing the brambles and Tom, Dave and Fionn were set with the task of breaking up the ground and removing the remaining grass and bramble roots. A mighty root was found and it took three of them to pull it out! They also found a frog which shows how much of a wildlife haven this patch of land is.

Hard, tiring work but so much progress was made. Jo and Woody from 1st Kingston Hill were impressed as they have plans to add compost and plants donated from the local horticultural group and it means they can start right away. The cubs and scouts can all earn their gardening badges too which is an extra bonus. Well done GoodGym Kingston!

Four of us gathered to meet Julie at sunbathed Hogsmill Garden on Sunday morning, GoodGym regular haunt now and one of my personal favourites. It has changed to much especially in the last few weeks where the University students have installed some raised beds and a planting area with a roof. We had couple tasks to get on with; staring with clearing space along the metal fence so then we can plant some more small bushes that will eventually create lovely green "fence". Once all was planted, Melissa watered them and the we got on with transferring soil from a large pile into a large bag which will be used later. Turned out that we started at the wrong end of the pile, only for Julie to inform us that actually we need to move the soil away from the outside wooden loo to avoid further damage. We are not to be defeated - bog saved, soil in the bag after a good workout, we said goodbye until next week. PS: Thanks Claire for this report's pun :)

A special GoodGym night it was as our very own Martel finally logged 100 good deeds. Although we all know that she has done way more behind the scenes and she should have reached this goal a long time ago - she has officially reached 100! Congratulations on your achievement - can't wait to see your red t-shirt with wings soon.

To celebrate we did our group run to Welcare - a charity devoted to working with families with young children - and we saw the garden in full bloom. Beautiful tulips and daffodils provided an splash of colour and we worked hard to weed between the bulbs without damaging them. Lots of sycamore saplings needed to be removed and a carpet of borage - too much self-seeding would have them take over this pretty garden and destroy our previous hard work planting. A little robin even came to inspect our work as we toiled in the soil.

The time went very quickly as we chatted with Aruna and soon it was time to collect our things and head off. Can't wait to see the progress on our next visit.

Let's have a social - time to unwind with food and beverage options at The Albion.

Following our Group run, we'll have post-run meet-up - it's a great opportunity to have a good chat with your fellow GoodGymers!

There's a table reserved at The Albion from 8:30pm onwards. If you're not able to join the run and task, hopefully you can make it there for the drinks after.

https://www.thealbionkingston.com/

Our Tuesday group run took us to 3rd Kingston Scout Group to help tidy up the outside of their hut. They have two car parks that had started to get overgrown with weeds and the mild weather had caused these weeds to grow! GoodGym got prepared to do our duty.

We split into two groups: Claire, Craig and Fionn took the back car park to tackle the perimeter where the weeds were knee high and Tara, Martel, Dave and Tom climbed the grassy mound in the front car park to sort the weeds, nettles and litter. Interesting finds such as bottles of vodka, takeaway wrappers and lighters were found in the grass - not the sort of thing that scouts need for their badges. It was tough work but we cleared a good amount of weeds and rubbish and we promised to come back and help another time as we didn't quite finish clearing the nettles.

Did we earn a GoodGym badge for our sleeves? I think so... Dib dib dib.

We celebrated our our evening with a GoodGym social in the Albion for 2-4-1 burgers - yum, yum.